Hello and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life. I'm your host, Corey Miscara, and in today's episode, we're going to talk about the refuge that is awareness. More to come on that in a moment. First, let's settle in together with the sound of the bells.

Okay, I'd like to start by sharing a quote by Ajan Sumato, who says, Awareness is your refuge, awareness of the changingness of feelings, of attitudes, of moods, of material change and emotional change.

Stay with that because it's a refuge that is indestructible.

It's not something that changes.

It's a refuge you can trust in.

This refuge is not something that you create.

It's not a creation. It's that you create. It's not a creation.

It's not an ideal.

It's very practical and very simple, but easily overlooked or not noticed.

When you're mindful, you're beginning to notice.

It's like this. So awareness is your refuge.

This is one of those things you hear quite a bit in the mindfulness,

meditation, contemplative spaces that you can hear it so much that it can be quite trite.

You might not hear awareness as your refuge

a lot, that particular phrasing, but just this idea that mindfulness, meditation, it's about

coming back to this place of awareness. And one of the things I've seen very often over the years

is a lot of people who are new to this practice hear that idea

and go okay nice idea but like then what do you do with the awareness right i'm aware of my experience

now what or they say like i've i'm already aware of my experience and i don't feel refuge in it

um so understandable push, but it's because the awareness is not deeply embodied yet.

I've never met anyone who has really embodied this teaching.

It's not a teaching.

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